Sunday, November 1, 2020
Week 12 Updates
Monday, October 19, 2020
Start of 2nd Quarter 2020
Welcome to the second quarter of 2020 Flexible Remote Learning. I cannot believe how quickly the first quarter really did fly. Believe it or not we only have 40 school days in quarter two. That sounds like no time at all. We will be trying to squeeze so much in, so there will be some schedule changes every now and then (like the next two weeks). I will notify you when those happen, and they will also be in the calendar. Here is what is coming up next week...
Math: We will be relating addition to subtraction and solving problems using the number line. This will conclude with an assessment on Friday.
ELA: We will begin one of my favorite units of all time, learning about Ancient Egypt through our Lit Study "Mummies in the Morning." Everyday for the next 10 days we will review vocabulary, read a chapter and answer some comprehension questions with writing. We will learn about mummies, pyramids, sarcophagi, and more. We will also continue with our spelling sounds from NatGeo (L blends are this week: fl, bl, pl, gl, and cl words) and read stories from NatGeo. Although there is just 4 days this week, please have your kiddo double up on writing spelling one of the days, the extra practice will only help.
Science: We are going to be wrapping up our unit on plants this week. We will collect some data on what our lawns look like with pictures and labels on Wednesday and Friday we will collect data before and after we "mow" our lawns. All seeds should be planted by this point. Also, please make sure your child is checking their plants and watering as needed. If your child is at a safe learning center or somewhere else during the day, please make sure they have their plants with them on Wednesday and Friday.
Materials: Please make sure your child has all their school materials with them daily, especially if they are not at home. This is because there is not telling when I might need them to pull out something we have not needed previously, or that we have not used in a while. The loosing or misplacing of supplies is not new to distance learning, it happened daily in the classroom. The only difference is that I am not in a position to help them find anything now. I have talked to a few of them one on one about finding a place at home for storing their supplies. A bin or a bag/backpack for keeping everything in one spot is a good idea. Let me know if you need a backpack and I will see what I can do about getting one for your child. Also, before the next round of materials goes out I will check and see what basic supplies your child may need at this point and I will try and get those to you (wipe off board, wipe off marker, pencil - bigger things like crayons will not be able to be replaced).
Schedule Next Two Weeks: This upcoming week and next I will be having the kiddos come to me after lunch for our live math, from 12:15-12:45. They will be able to do independent math practice after this. It will be a requirement for all students attend class during this after lunch time. This is because we will be doing our lit study in the morning during our regularly scheduled math time. Trying to fit it all in :). I will also be updating the 1:1 sight word testing time and the group reading times this week, both of which will not resume until next week. I will send those updated lists ASAP.
Report Card Access: First, thank you to everyone who took the time to attend your child's conference last week. Working together has never been as important for a child's educational success as it is right now. If you missed the conferences you can still access your child's report card through Parent Vue. You may view the tutorial on how to do so at this link here Accessing standard report. If you have any follow up questions after viewing please feel free to send me an email.
Thank you to everyone who is participating in our fundraiser this year. Students are selling discount cards to all kinds of amazing restaurants for $10 to friends and family. You can use this ordering form when selling cards. You can also use this flyer, which had a link to the form as well. Just send the flyer out to anyone who you think might be interested in buying a card. This Thursday, October 22nd will be the last day to drop off cash and checks collected from cards sold, and to pick up the cards you need to distribute. This will happen from 3:30-5:30. You may also swing by the front office Monday or Wednesday from 3-4. Sales must be received by 10:30am on Friday, October 23rd for students to qualify for the raffle drawing. Students who sell 5 or more cards will be entered into the raffle for prizes. The student who sells the most cards will win an electric scooter, and I just found out that the class that sells the most cards will win a pizza party. You can check out all the info and prizes by clicking on the link here → fundraiser.
Show and Tell: We will be doing show and tell this week. Everyone's turn will just be pushed back a day. The theme is something Orange (uh-oh...sorry Riley 😂). Here is the schedule:
- Tuesday - Aria, Cohen, Cypress, Dakota, Damiana
- Wednesday - Elizabeth, Guner, Isaac, Jake, Jocelyn
- Thursday - Juniper, Marcus, Nino, Paloma, Rayland
- Friday - Reese, Riley, Sofia, Vaerick, Victoria, Violet
I hope everyone had an amazingly restful 5 days off. Here's to the next 40 strong! -Ms. Shaw
Sunday, October 11, 2020
Conferences 2020
Welcome to our 9th week of school. This officially marks the end of the first quarter. This is also the end of a very historic quarter, our first ever in Flexible Remote Learning. It feels like we just got started and this quarter has just flown by, but we did it! I cannot wait to share with you during conferences how your children made growth, even in this unconventional setting. More on that below. First, I will share what we are learning over the next 3 days.
ELA: There will be no ELA this week. This means no spelling and no reading groups or 1:1's. There is also no RTI this week. When we return from break we will begin learning about Ancient Egypt through our Magic Treehouse Book "Mummies in the Morning." Please feel free to purchase a copy of this book from Amazon or Barnes and Noble if you would like for your child to follow along at home as we read a chapter a day during class.
Math: This week we will concentrate on using Doubles (ex: 3 + 3 = 6) and Doubles Plus 1 (ex: 3 + 4 = 7) to solve addition problems. Doubles is a relatively fun and easy lesson. Doubles plus one in extremely hard, and I do not expect mastery. Our curriculum gives one day to teach this, I am breaking it into 2 and depending on how doubles plus one goes I may extend it to all 3 days. There will be no practice set on Monday.
Science: The kids loved planting their ryegrass and alfalfa seeds on Friday. That's right, we are growing our own little grassy lawns. Please remember to have your child check their lawns and see if they need water daily. The soil only needs to be moist, not soaked. If it is not watered properly their lawns will not grow. I am hoping they will have very tall lawns by Wednesday so that we can record our observations before and after we mow our lawns (that's right, our grass will be getting a "haircut" when it gets long enough). If this does not happen before break please make sure your child continues to water properly over the 5 day break so that this may happen when we return.
Parent/Teacher Conferences and Early Release: Do not forget that all week we are on a special schedule for both learning and release. Monday and Tuesday we will release at 12:25 and Wednesday is extra early at 11:10. If you have not signed up for a conference yet please do so at this link Conference Sign Up. Please use your child's classroom link to access your online conference with me as this is the link we are using for online conferences. Zoom Conference Link. I think it is imperative that I touch base with every family during this round of conferences, and highly encourage you to sign up so that we can discuss your child's progress during remote learning. If you do not sign up, I might be reaching out to you for a conversation anyway.
Schedule: Please be aware of the schedule changes in our Google Classroom for this week. Lessons will be happening at different times, as well as lunch (M/T @ 10:30 Wednesday no lunch, just a half hour break from 9:30-10:00), and end of day meeting times. There will also be no Show and Tell next week, instead I will be doing Heggerty live for the closing meetings.
Quarter 2 School Board Decision: As promised, the update on the Boards decision. I will try not to make it complicated. When we return from break we will begin in FRL. We will stay in FRL until we hit the benchmark requirements to begin a phased reopening. The Requirements are as follows:
FUSD must be within the Moderate (Yellow) community spread level, with all three benchmarks in the yellow and green categories for two consecutive weeks of data to initiate the phased return to in-person learning at schools.
The highest risk color (i.e. Red is highest, then Yellow, then Green) shown in any benchmark on the chart below over the two-week period determines the overall risk level. For example, if the health benchmarks show 2 Greens and 1 Yellow, the risk level will be Moderate because Yellow is the higher risk value. If any one of the benchmarks is the Substantial (Red) community spread level, FUSD will continue with full remote learning as it has for the 1st quarter of the 2020-2021 school year.
Health Indicators for Initiating Return to In-Person Learning
The phased reopening plan looks like this:
Week 1: Teachers and Staff return to district sites and schools
Week 2: Initial students return to in-person learning (5 dayIs per week) Grade Bands: PK, K, 1, 2, 6, 9, 12, *Special Education Specialized Programs
Week 3: Additional students return to in-person learning (5 days per week)
Grade Bands: 3, 8, 10, 11
Week 4: Final students return to in-person learning (5 days per week)
Grade Bands: 4, 5, 7
If you have any questions please feel free to contact the front office or the district.
I truly am impressed with what has transpired over this quarter and look forward to sharing your child's progress with your over these next three days. I will see you all at some point this week! -Ms. Shaw
Sunday, October 4, 2020
October 2020
Welcome to October. I love teaching this time of year. This is where we dive into our plant unit, learn about Ancient Egypt, mummify an apple, and so much more! As always, I will let you know what we are doing and when right here in the blog. Here is what we have coming up this week....
Math: We will continue on where we left off last week, learning how to make equivalent expressions, learning the commutative property of addition, and using the commutative property to count on from the larger addend. Once we get past Monday's lesson of turning a false number sentence into a true number sentence, the rest of the week should go rather smoothly in math.
ELA: Our ELA runs in 4 week units, alternating between social studies and science. We began our year with our social studies unit on families. We are now entering week 2 of our Plant unit. This means (now that we have distributed materials) we can begin incorporating our reading with our science, and do some planting by the end of the week! The spelling sound of the week is ck and ng.
Science: As mentioned above we will begin planting our seeds at the end of this week. This, along with learning about how seeds travel last week, will kick off our plant unit. Before we plant we will talk about what is a scientist and begin recording about being a scientist in our science notebooks. Warning - we will be using our scissors and glue sticks this week, please make sure your child has these materials that were sent home at the beginning of the year.
Material Distribution: If you were unable to make it on Friday to pick up your child's materials please make sure you do so as soon as possible this week, Monday would be ideal. Your child's bag of October supplies are in the office. Please make sure you pick up the bag with your child's name on the science notebook. Also, there is dirt and seeds in the science bags. You may want to make sure that these are placed somewhere safe until the day we plant (I'm aiming for Thursday but depending on what happens this week it may happen Friday). On a personal note, thank you to all of those who had just the kindest things to say on Friday. Your words of encouragement and acknowledgement were uplifting and did my teacher heart good. I even received a couple of little handmade gifts which was totally unexpected and so thoughtful. I also just loved seeing the kids. Each time I feel like we know each other better and it is so cool to see their cute little faces in person and spend a minute talking to each other. I just wish I could hug them all!
Pink Out: On Friday all Marshall students and staff will be wearing pink to support and raise awareness of breast cancer. In honor of a very amazing and sweet friend of mine who passed on Thursday from breast cancer I would love my class all to be wearing pink on Friday.
Parent/Teacher Conferences: Conferences will be held Monday, October 12th - Wednesday, October 14th. These will be early release days (12:25 on Monday and Tuesday, 11:10 on Wednesday). I will send out an online sign-up about midweek so keep an eye out. Also, conferences will be 20 minutes, and they will be held online as well. I will not be holding any in person conferences at all. You will be able to access your meeting time via our regular classroom Zoom link. I will resend that out to you as the time draws closer. Thursday, Friday, and the following Monday will all be days off for a fall holiday. Yep, 5 days off. Enjoy.
School Board Meeting: This Tuesday night is another board meeting, where we are hoping for some more finalized direction for quarter to learning. As always, I will email you with any information or direction that comes out of Friday's meeting.
I hope everyone had a restful and peaceful weekend. Ready for a fun and exciting week 8! -Ms. Shaw
Sunday, September 27, 2020
Last Week of September 2020 Updates
Welcome to our last week of September, and for those of you counting, our 7th week of Flexible Remote Learning. Yes, our students are headed into their 7th week of learning online. Still mind blowing to me. We have learned, all of us. We have grown and students have made growth. We have done hard things together. I am so appreciative of all you are doing to make this happen on your side of the screen. I see your hard work, I know it is hard and the many reasons why it is so. Still you are doing it! All for our first graders. I wanted to recognize you and what you have put in for 7 weeks. Thank you! We are not done, take a deep breath and let's keep going. Here is what we have on the table for this week:
Math: We have been cruising along nicely in math during FRL. We will finish up with Topic D, Strategies for Counting on this week, followed by an assessment. After that we will begin Topic E, understanding the equal sign and the commutative property of addition. We will be creating true number sentences with equal expressions (3+2=4+1) and recognizing and correcting untrue number sentences (3+2 does not equal 4+2 so students will learn how to change just one addend to make it a true sentence). These lessons can often take more than one day in the classroom, so I will not be posting a full weeks of math in our calendar. I will post one day at a time, please do not work ahead. If I need an extra day for teaching I will make sure to send an email letting you know there will be no math practice for that day, we will save it after we do more teaching and learning of the concept the following day. Thank you for your understanding and working with me to ensure your child's understanding of these math concepts.
ELA: We are headed into our second unit of our NatGeo reading curriculum. The theme for unit 2 is Plants. Be on the look out for how I plan on incorporating this into some science and how this will work with another material distribution soon. In the meantime, our spelling sound of the week will be short u sounds. Parents, do not forget when your children go to Independent ELA Reading time this is when they can be doing the following (side note we are working on RazzKids should be coming soon):
Work Due: Please make sure to use the Google Calendar to also look for work due. I have assigned a social studies assignment on types of homes families live in that is due, and I will repost a grammar assignment on Common and Proper nouns that was in the Calendar. Remember, we may be in FRL but things that are assigned are still being graded and put into report cards. We will review report cards at parent teacher conferences which will be held Monday Oct. 12 - Wednesday Oct. 14. I will have more details in next weeks blog.
Food Service: I posted about FUSD's awesome food service program in last weeks blog, which you can access here Food Service Info Blog. I want to add to this info that you can now also pick up meals on Friday for Saturday and Sunday at Cromer, Killip, Kinsey, Leupp and Thomas elementary schools from 7:30 am to 9:00 am and 10:30am to 1:00 pm. Again, if your family is in need of meals for your children ages up to 18, I encourage you to click on the link for more information and take advantage of this amazing program.
Pledge of Allegiance: If your child would like to lead the school in the pledge you can videotape them saying the pledge and send it to Principal Reasor at jreasor@fusd1.org. She will make their video a part of the morning announcements for the school to see.
Show and Tell: I cannot tell you how much I am enjoying show and tell. This has been amazing for the students to get to know each other and for their speaking skills. My favorite part is how kind they are to each other during this time. They other day one friend shared a cool homemade show and tell and on their own they started giving it thumbs up, heart, and confetti emoji's. It was such a genuine show of love and support and our friend who was showing had the biggest smile on his face. Next week's theme is something blue.
Hope everyone has had a restful weekend. 💛-Ms. Shaw
Sunday, September 20, 2020
FRL Week 6 September 21-25
Welcome to week 6 of FRL. I cannot believe how fast online learning is flying by. Just so you know, the district will be making a decision on back to school for quarter 2 this Tuesday night. You may watch via Venmeo on the district home or live on Facebook. I will email you on Wednesday with their decision so you will be up to date immediately. If we are back in FRL, things will continue as they are. If we are in any kind of hybrid model I will send information with what this means. For now let's talk what we are learning next week:
Math: We will finish Topic C - adddition word problems on Monday. This will be followed by our Topic C assessment on Tuesday. Then we will begin our unit for strategies for counting on. Please remember, in our math curriculum we teach many strategies for problem solving. The reason for this is not just so that your child may learn many methods, but also so that they may learn how to pick the strategies that work for them, and even discover the ones that do not. If one way seems to frustrate them, encourage them to use a strategy for solving that does.
ELA: We are finishing the first of our 4 week units in ELA, this one being families. We will be working on words with the short e sound and in grammar we will continue learning common and proper nouns. This was a difficult concept last week, so I want to continue it for another lesson. I want to point out that it is also more of an introductory concept for first grade, so although I will teach it another day I do not expect mastery of this concept in first grade. They will be exposed to common and proper nouns in subsequent years.
Suzuki Violin: Suzuki starts on Monday. For those of you who choose to participate and picked up a violin (or have one at home already) please make sure to join this special on Monday's from 1:10-1:40. Link will be in the Google Classroom.
RTI: RTI will also begin on Wednesday of this week. RTI will be every week, Monday-Thursday from 10:50-11:20 from this point on. Your child will click on their teachers link to attend their RTI class. If your child is in SEI, they will continue with Ms. Waltner. I will put the links in the stream of the Google Classroom, not the calendar. This is because there are 8 groups and they will not fit in the classroom. I will list the groups below. If your child is not on the list it is because they will not need to attend RTI while we are in FRL at this time. Please keep in mind, students from the other 2 first classes will also be in these groups.
Ms. Waltner - Jake, Jocelyn, Damiana
Ms. Voorhees - Violet, Vaerick
Mrs. Hanno - Rayland, Guner
Mrs. Anderson - Elizabeth, Nino
Mrs. Stamer - Marcus
Mrs. Schepper - Cohen, Dakota, Riley
Mr. Kasch - Victoria, Aria, Isaac, Juniper
Mrs. Burgoon - Sofia
FUSD Food Services: It's back! FUSD's Grab and Go Food Service Program has returned. Here's what I love, the program is available to all children under the age of 18 in the community, and children do not have to be enrolled in an FUSD school to use the free meal service. Meals can be picked up by parents for their child. Each meal will include breakfast and lunch for the day. Meals will be provided from 7:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at Cromer Elementary, Killip Elementary, Kinsey Elementary, Leupp Elementary, and Thomas Elementary. Additionally, meals will also be available via bus distribution at the following times and locations:
8:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. - Mountainaire Store
8:30 a.m. to 8:45 a.m. - 6885 Lumberjack Blvd.
8:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. - 1001 N. Fourth St.
8:40 a.m. to 8:45 a.m. - Grey Mountain at East Side of 89
8:51 a.m. to 9:01 a.m. - E. Rustler Rd. and Leupp Rd.
9:05 a.m. to 9:35 a.m. - 2701 E. Industrial Dr.
9:10 a.m. to 9:40 a.m. - Kachina Trail at Raymond Park
9:14 a.m. to 9:24 a.m. - S. Horn Rd. at Leupp Rd.
9:25 a.m. to 9:40 a.m. - STAR School
9:45 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. - Bird Springs Housing MP 27.5
9:55 a.m. to 10:20 a.m. - 37 W. Pinewood Blvd.
10:45 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. - Tolani Lake at Three Way Stop
I think this is such an amazing service provided by the district and highly encourage anyone who needs it to please take advantage of this meal service.
A very full week ahead. If you have any questions feel free to reach out. Look for updates midweek. -Ms. Shaw
Monday, September 7, 2020
Labor Day Week
Happy Labor Day. I hope everyone had a relaxing 3 day weekend. Can you believe we are headed into week four of FRL? I would like for us to gather on Wednesday night to discuss where we stand at this point, more of that below. First, as always, let me share what we will be doing in class.
Math: We will finish Topic B on Tuesday and Wednesday. This covers counting on from embedded numbers up to totals of 8-10. On Thursday I will review the math test with them, and then they may take the test after that on Nearpod. They may not take the test before that, or they will not have been taught the lessons covered on the test. Next week we will get into Topic C, addition word problems.
ELA: We are moving into week 2 of our ELA unit of families. This also means our second week of spelling, which is short i words. Please remember that when your child goes to independent ELA the first thing they should be doing is their spelling words, and then they can be doing one of the Daily 5 options they have learned with me, along with watching the link to the video I have provided for them in the independent work section. This will always be a short, fun video that goes with the spelling sounds we are working on.
Suzuki: We are hoping to add Suzuki violin to our FRL schedule. This would be on Monday's from 1:10-1:40. We need to know who is interested in having a violin at home for their child to participate in this special. Please take the time to fill out this attached survey either way to help us plan accordingly. Suzuki Survey Thank you.
Parent Information Check In Night: Ok, I tried coming up with a cute name for this, but it is 6:30 on Monday evening. If you have a cute name, let me know. The important part is I would like to host a parent check in night this Wednesday from 6:00-6:30 just to go over some important information that might make life on your end a little easier and answer any questions you might still have on your end. We will make it easy and just use the same link we use for class. I really hope to see everyone there.
Show and Tell: I have decided to bring back show and tell, something we have not had time for in first grade for the last several years. Every week I will let the students know the theme for the upcoming week, and put it here in the blog. This weeks theme is - something with wheels. On your child's assigned day they may share something they have that has wheels. They are to tell us as much information they can about their item, where they got it, why they like it, etc.. Then they will be able to call on three friends who can ask a question or make a statement about your child's show and tell. The assigned days are in our Google Classroom calendar, but I will post here as well. If we ever have a closure on Monday (or any other day of the week) those kiddos will go on Friday. Friday will also be reserved for make ups. This week was no school Monday, so Monday kiddos will be going this Friday. I told them the good news is that they will get to go two times in a row. Here is our show and tell schedule.
Monday's - Aria, Cohen, Cypress, Dakota (This group will go on Friday this week).
Tuesday's - Elizabeth, Guner, Isaac, Jake, Jocelyn
Wednesday's - Juniper, Marcus, Nino, Paloma, Rayland
Thursday's - Reese, Riley, Sofia, Vaerick, Victoria, Violet
Reading Groups: I will begin meeting with your kiddos in reading groups next week, starting Monday September 21st. This week we will finish district wide testing that is used to help form these groups. I will be doing a combination of group meetings and one on one sight word meetings to build their sight word skills. Being that I am trying to accomplish both types of meeting, I will be doing some of the groups during independent work times. This means your child will have to complete their independent work at other times of the day. Please make sure that days independent work is completed. Here is the schedule as it is at this time:
Monday's -
Group 1 @ 9:30: Jake, Vaerick, Violet
Monday's 1:1's -
12:20-12:40 Cypress
12:40-12:50 Reese
12:50-1:00 Damiana
1:00-1:10 Paloma
1:40-1:50 Cohen
1:50-2:00 Juniper
Tuesday's -
Group 2 @ 9:30: Jocelyn, Guner, Elizabeth, Rayland
Group 3 @ 12:20: Dakota, Nino, Isaac, Riley, Marcus
Wednesday's -
Group 4 @ 9:30: Aria, Cohen, Victoria, Sofia
Group 5 @ 12:20: Juniper, Cypress, Damiana
Wednesday's 1:1's -
2:00-2:10 Jake
2:10-2:20 Violet
2:20-2:40 Nino
2:40-2:50 Vaerick
Thursday's -
Group 6 @ 9:30: Reese and Paloma
Thursday's 1:1's -
12:20-12:40 Rayland
12:40-12:50 Guner
12:50-1:00 Elizabeth
1:00-1:10 Jocelyn
2:00-2:10 Dakota
2:10-2:20 Isaac
2:20-2:40 Riley
2:40-2:50 Marcus
Friday's 1:1's -
11:20-11:30 Aria
11:30-11:40 Sofia
11:40-11:50 Paloma
11:50-12:00 Victoria
I believe I have everyone covered. Unless there is a major scheduling issue, let's see how this goes before we try and switch any times around. Of course, if there is a huge and immediate conflict please let me know.
Once again, I think that is enough information for tonight. I look forward to seeing everyone on Wednesday at 6:00. Week 4, let's go! -Ms. Shaw
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Happy May Room 9 Families! We have been hard at work and having so much fun. Here is what we have been up to, where we are at, and where we ...
-
Hello families. Just a quick update on a few thing going on here at Marshall the next couple of weeks: Red Ribbon Week Spirit Days Next...
-
Happy snowy Monday everyone. This blog is going to be all about our events, past and future. Let's start with our trip to the library... -
Happy middle of January. I hope everyone enjoyed their snowy weekend. I don't see any snow on schedule for this week, but it looks li...